Ontario Distracted Driving Week

This week, March 14-20, 2016 is Distracted Driving Week in Ontario. The OPP will be patrolling Ontario roads looking for distracted drivers and cracking down on this dangerous epidemic.

Distracted driving is the leading cause of road deaths

According to AM980 News, “it is the third year in a row distracted driving has been the leading cause in fatal road deaths.” This is why OPP has kicked off their annual Distracted Driving week campaign, with officers patrolling for those who are driving distracted.

Anyone who is pre-occupied with anything other than driving is driving distracted. Among the most dangerous are texting and talking on your mobile phone while operating your vehicle.

Ontario’s Distract Driving Law – the details:

As per the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, in Ontario, it's against the law to:

Examples of hand-held devices include:

iPods;

GPS and MP3 players;

cell phones;

smart phones;

laptops;

DVD players.

What are the fines/penalties for distracted driving?

As per the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, in Ontario if convicted of distracted driving, a fully licenced driver (holder of Class A, B, C, D, E, F, G) or a hybrid driver (holder of a full-class licence and a novice licence such as Class G and M1) will receive:

A fine of $400, plus a victim surcharge and court fee, for a total of $490 if settled out of court;

fine of up to $1,000 if you receive a summons or fight your ticket;

three demerit points applied to your driver’s record.

We hope that you realize the dangers of driving distracted, considering it is the leading cause of driving fatalities - it is not worth the risk. We wrote another blog titled, “The Top 10 Deadliest Driving Distractions,” if you would like to read that please click here.